Speech #690176098

Just a moment. The commissioner of immigration at Ellis Island. who has studied this matter infinitely more than the subordinate from the State Department who appeared before the committee. who got his information from the charitable relief societies operating abroad who were looking after these wives and minor children. who got his information from the incoming immigrants who were the husbands and the fathers. and had kept track of their entrance into the United States. made an estimate infinitely more reliable than that made by the State Department. which was never made officially. Never once has the State Department dared to say that that estimate of theirs was official as reflecting the number of people who could come here if there were no limitations in this amendment. and the esomate of the commissioner of immigrationnever questioned by the Commissioner General of Immigration nor by the Secretary of Labor. with whom I have often talkedwas to the effect that not more than 50.000 persons could be admitted under the amendment. including fathers and mothers. Fathers and mothers have been stricken out of this amendment. and it applies merely to the wives and little children. and the best estimate we can get of the number is 35.000. That is what the amendment provides--a limit of 35.000--and one years time is provided for in this amendment in which to consummate the reuniting of these families.